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rzwses MLPETERS, PMDTo-LITMOGRAPHER. WASHINGTON D C UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

PETER N. GREER, OF NEV YORK, N. Y.

PREPARATION OF FINE-CUT TOBACCO.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 45,489, dated December 20, 1864.

T0 all whom. it may concern Be it known that I, PETER N. GREER, of the city, county, and State of New York, have invented certain Improvements in the Preparation of Fine-Out Tobacco Shorts, of which the following is a specification.

My invention consists in pressing the shorts, or the fine tobacco which has been sifted out in the preparation of the ordinary chewing-tobacco, into a plug, as hereinafter more fully described.

In the drawings, Figure l is a perspective view of a paper of tobacco ready for pressing.

Fig. 2isaperspective view ofthe same pressed. Fig. 3 is a cross-section of Fig. 2.

The object of this invention is to utilize the shorts or fine tobacco that has been sifted out in the preparation of the ordinary chewingtobacco. To accomplish this I first remove any stems, Snc., that may have passed through the sieves. Then I moisten the tobacco with a solution of suganhouse sirup, or, a solution of licorice may be used; but I prefer the sirup, as it gives a better ilavor to the tobacco, and also aids in imparting cohesion to the plug when pressed. The next operation is to put up the tobacco in papers, or in papers and tin-foil, A, in the ordinary way. The tobacco is then ready for the press. For this operation I use an ordinary press, similar to those now in use for other purposes. The papers of tobacco A, prepared and put up as described, are placed, one at a time, in an iron box, said box being open at both ends. The lower end of the box is closed or occupied by a stop or l plunger, so arranged as to support the press` ure applied to the tobacco, and at the same time so as to be raised by the action of a treadle far enough to lift the pressed tobacco or plug B out of the box so as to be conveniently removed. Into the other or upper end of the iron box the plunger of the press enters and the tobacco is instantaneously pressed into a iirni and consistent mass or plug, B, the sides of the box keeping the tobacco from spreading out at the edges and leaving it, when pressed, in the form represented in Figs. 2 and 3.

Among the advantages of my invention are the following: that the pressure is applied instantaneously and the work completed very rapidly-as rapidly in the hands of a skillful manipulator as fteen papers per minuteand a very excellent article of plug or chewing tobacco is prepared from the shorts, which heretofore have been mixed in small quantities with the chewingtobacco, or else thrown wholly among the smoking-tobacco; but by my invention a very excellent article is produced, which can be furnished at a less price than the ordinary chewing-tobacco.

I claim-` A plug-tobacco formed from the shorts, prepared and put up, as hereinabove described, by pressing, substantially as described, and for the purpose set forth.

PETER N. G12-EER. Witnesses:

ANsoN JUDsoN, J AMES T. GRAHAM. 

